Jed Report: Yesterday, John McCain proudly announced that thirty “prominent Democratic and unaffiliated leaders and activists” had endorsed his campaign and along with Joe Lieberman would “rally Americans of all political parties to support John McCain’s candidacy.”

Notwithstanding Joe Lieberman, it sounds impressive until you find out that one of John McCain’s thirty most “prominent Democratic and unaffiliated” supporters in the country is Phillip “Icky” Frye, a television and VCR repairman from West Virginia who decided to run for governor to seek revenge against then Governor Bob Wise, who had engaged in an extramarital affair with Frye’s wife, a state employee. (Their affair was a media goldmine, complete with an e-mail trail.)

McCain brags that Frye is a “former Democratic gubernatorial candidate” from West Virginia. That’s technically true, but Frye never won the Democratic nomination. He didn’t even come close, in fact. In the 2004 primary, he finished in 7th place — out of 8 candidates. He received 2,892 votes — good enough for 1% of the vote. (The winner took 149,362 votes.)

Here’s the details: Frye’s wife, Angela Mascia-Frye, had been having an extramarital affair with the then-incumbent governor, Bob Wise. After Frye filed divorce papers, Wise admitted to the affair.

West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, a Democrat, took a potentially damaging blow to his political career when he admitted to being “unfaithful to my family” on Monday. Wise’s confession came after the Charleston Daily Mail contacted his press office with allegations of an affair with a state employee.

A divorce case filed by Philip Frye against Angela Mascia Frye, who is the director of European operations for the West Virginia Development Office, implicates Wise as the reason for the couple’s split. Frye told the Charleston Daily Mail that his wife of seven years had been having an affair with the governor for months. “I had private detectives all over this thing. I’ve got pictures and documents — all kinds of hard evidence,” Frye said.

Frye then decided to seek revenge by challenging Wise, later explaining his decision to run for office in blunt terms: “It was fueled by revenge to some degree, and I wanted to embarrass Wise.” Frye, who criticized Wise a “typical Democrat,” also said he hoped to cash in on his story:

Frye referred to Wise as a “little weasel-faced bastard” and a “typical Democrat,” but he will not release the details of his allegations because he hopes to sell his story, the Daily Mail reports.

And there you have it: Icky Frye, one of the thirty most prominent Democratic supporters of John McCain in the entire United States of America.

Makes you wonder…who the heck is vetting these lists? And who in the press is fact-checking them?